By Sarah Left, 24 March 2000 00:30
NEWS The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has issued a wake-up call to UK board members on the importance of identifying and prosecuting fraud within their organisations. The CBI's Partners Against Crime initiative - which kicks off today - is designed to educate senior businesspeople about how to deal with fraud. Computer-assisted crime is singled out for particular attention in a booklet produced for Partners Against Crime by consultancy firm Ernst & Young. Jan Babiak, partner in Ernst & Young's Information Systems Assurance and Advisory Service, said one of the most common crimes - intellectual property theft - is easy to perpetrate with the increased connectivity available in most offices, and very difficult to detect. She agreed with the CBI's assessment that the responsibility for fraud prevention sits with the board of directors. Babiak commented: "It's got to start at the top, because if you don't send out the message that this is important, particularly on computer security, then you won't have it built into the fabric of your organisation." IT directors need to take particular care with computer-assisted fraud. As Babiak noted, "There are situations in the IT world where the controls are not anywhere close to what they ought to be, not meeting any of the general standards of a BS7799. We've found that when those situations arise then the people responsible for the controls can be held just as accountable as the individual who does it." The CBI/Ernst & Young booklet - 'Fraud: Risk and Prevention' - costs £10 and is available from pubsales@cbi.org.uk.
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